Assisi house

Providing Stability & Building Community: Assisi House at St. Pius V

In 2018, our parish convent at 3522 Utah Street became available for other uses after our beloved Sisters of the Most Precious Blood of O'Fallon relocated. The convent building, with thirteen bedrooms and large common spaces, is ideally suited for the community-building work of the Assisi House organization. As an active partner in the stability of the South Grand and Tower Grove neighborhoods for over 100 years, we helped establish the fifth Assisi House in the former convent building. As of mid-November 2018, thirteen men who were formerly unhoused now have an affordable, supportive, and permanent home.

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When you don't have a job, you can't pay the rent.

When you don't have an address, you can't get a job.

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What Assisi House Does

Assisi House creates an atmosphere that is safe and supportive, transitioning residents into independent living, or offering others indefinite housing due to disabilities or other issues. Each person has their own bedroom, lockable and secure. They pay rent of approximately $200-$250 each month and share common areas and household responsibilities.

 

Residents are carefully screened and often come to Assisi House by agency referral. Assisi House is entirely funded by non-governmental sources.

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How Assisi House Began

In 2005, a group of volunteers organized the St. Louis Winter Outreach (SLWO) to prevent unhoused people from dying from exposure during the coldest nights of the winter. They began by reaching out to the homeless with blankets, food, water, coats, and supplies; transporting people to shelters; and building a network of eight emergency shelters to house people overnight when temperatures dropped below 20 degrees. This work continues today.

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After nearly 10 years of Winter Outreach work, organizers realized they could do more. Assisi House was formed in 2014 to provide an every-night, all-winter shelter for 27 men. At the end of that first winter, the building was converted into permanent housing for 13 men, who paid about $250 per month in rent.

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The first Assisi House endeavor was so successful that an additional site, Assisi House II, was opened the next year. Assisi Houses III and IV opened in the years following. Currently, two houses are for women and two are for men. 

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Being homeless soon turns to being hopeless.

You spend most of your time and energy

looking for something to eat and a safe place to sleep.

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